“Huh!”
Yuan Ming suddenly noticed an abnormal situation. These purple-black demon vines not only grew lush leaves and bloomed purple-black flowers, but their length had also greatly changed.
Originally, the demon vines were at most seven or eight zhang long, but the demon vines in front of him were far more than that. There were at least twenty zhang. Could it be related to the strange black aura they absorbed?
Yuan Ming pondered for a moment and communicated with the Black Toad through his divine sense.
The Black Toad’s belly shook, waking up.
Sensing Yuan Ming’s presence, the Black Toad quickly turned its body around and a purple-black light emerged from its back, causing the demon vines that covered the entire hall to quickly retract and disappear. The Black Toad then jumped to Yuan Ming’s side.
Yuan Ming communicated with the Black Toad through his mind, asking why it came here.
The Black Toad’s thoughts buzzed and it tried hard to explain its experiences in the Snake King Valley during this period.
The Black Toad’s intelligence was not high, so its explanation was not very clear. Yuan Ming could only guess and roughly understand the Black Toad’s experience here.
After Yuan Ming left it in the Snake King Valley that day, the Black Toad immediately returned to the Snake King Cave and continued to absorb the fierce black aura from the black pillars.
At first, everything was fine, but a few days later, the black pillar suddenly rose from the ground, causing the ground below to shake like an earthquake, and a straight tunnel appeared.
The black pillar then drilled into the tunnel underground, as if someone was controlling it.
The Black Toad was lying on the pillar at that time and, seeing this drastic change, it quickly used the demon vines to tightly wrap its body around the pillar, preventing itself from being thrown off.
The black pillar followed the underground passage made of bluestone and arrived at the gray underground palace.
The strange black aura here was even more intense, and the Black Toad was overjoyed. It decided to stay here and release the demon vines to absorb the black aura.
The more the purple-black demon vines absorbed the strange black aura, the more they grew lush.
As the symbiotic body of the demon vines, although the Black Toad did not gain any benefits, it also felt very comfortable and quickly fell into a deep sleep until it was awakened by Yuan Ming just now.
Yuan Ming silently pondered all of this, feeling incredulous. His gaze turned to the back of the Black Toad, where the bulge had also grown significantly, as if it was wrapped in several purple-black leaves.
“Where is that black pillar now?” Yuan Ming asked.
The Black Toad raised its head and looked towards the deepest part of the underground palace.
There was a tightly closed black stone door on the wall, and the black pillar stood tall to the right of the stone door. The patterns on it emitted a black glow, and the emitted black aura was ten times denser.
“You don’t need to worry about me, continue absorbing the black aura,” Yuan Ming instructed.
Upon hearing this, the Black Toad happily croaked and released the demon vines again to absorb the black aura here.
Yuan Ming approached the black pillar and once again used his divine sense to investigate. Unfortunately, just like before, as soon as his divine sense touched the pillar, an invisible force bounced him away.
He sighed and looked towards the black stone door, using his divine sense to probe inside.
However, just like the stone door and the walls, there were some kind of restrictions that his divine sense couldn’t penetrate.
Yuan Ming carefully searched around the stone door but did not find any mechanisms to open it.
The black pillar wouldn’t have come here from the Snake King Cave for no reason. There must be something behind the stone door.
After a moment of silence, Yuan Ming suddenly pointed his finger.
A brilliant golden knife light shot out. It was the Nine-Ring Golden Knife he obtained from the bone diagram. It fiercely struck the stone door.
“Clang!” A loud noise rang out, and the Nine-Ring Golden Knife rebounded, leaving the black stone door unscathed.
Yuan Ming frowned, then reached into his chest and took out a small black bag. It was the corpse of the Heavenly Serpent Elder from the corpse-preserving bag in the bone diagram.
He waved his hand and summoned the corpse of the Heavenly Serpent Elder, intending to remove the black iron nail and control the corpse with the Soul Crow.
Suddenly, the corpse of the Heavenly Serpent Elder opened its eyes, emitting an extremely excited and fierce light. The black iron nail on its forehead buzzed and trembled, as if it was about to be pushed out by an invisible force.
“Clang clang!” The sound came from behind, seemingly someone madly pounding from behind the black stone door.
Yuan Ming’s expression changed drastically, and his heartbeat pounded violently along with the pounding behind the door. An indescribable fear surged up, as if there was a primordial beast standing in front of him.
He immediately activated the corpse-preserving bag, resealing the corpse of the Heavenly Serpent Elder, and used his mana to suppress it.
The corpse of the Heavenly Serpent Elder gradually calmed down, and the pounding sound behind the black stone door also disappeared.
Yuan Ming immediately moved away from the black stone door. Only then did his racing heart calm down, and his eyes flickered as he looked at the black stone door.
It seemed that the corpse of the Heavenly Serpent Elder was the key to opening this door, but what could be behind the stone door that gave him such a terrifying feeling?
With his current strength, it seemed that he was not qualified to open this door. If he rashly entered, there might be a situation that he couldn’t handle waiting for him.
Yuan Ming turned and walked to the side of the Black Toad, no longer paying attention to the black stone door. He sat cross-legged and began to restore the mana that was almost depleted from using the explosive technique.
Once his mana slightly recovered, he was afraid that the corpse of the Heavenly Serpent Elder would cause another disturbance, so he immediately left with the Black Toad.
It wasn’t until he stepped on the ground of the Snake King Cave that Yuan Ming finally felt completely at ease.
Without the strength of Foundation Establishment or above, Yuan Ming would never come here to investigate again.
He used his magic to conceal the entrance to the underground cave and then turned and left the Snake King Valley, returning to the Bi Luo Cave.
Three days later, Yuan Ming rushed back to the sect.
The White Deer Summit was not far away, and the atmosphere in the Bi Luo Cave had become much more lively. Even the disciples who did not sign up for the summit were looking forward to the event, speculating which disciples from the Bi Luo Cave had a chance to achieve good results in the summit.Yuan Ming naturally didn’t bother with these trivial matters. Upon returning to the sect, he stayed in his own residence, keeping his door closed.
Time quickly passed, and three days had gone by.
One day, while Yuan Ming was cultivating in his room, a series of urgent knocks came from the door.
He got up to open the door and found that the person outside was a servant who was responsible for cleaning this area.
“Immortal, the sect has just sent a message summoning all disciples to gather at the Qingluo Square,” the servant respectfully said.
Yuan Ming was taken aback and asked, “Summoning all disciples? Did they say why?”
“They didn’t mention it,” the servant shook his head.
“Alright, I understand. I’ll be there shortly,” Yuan Ming said after a moment of silence.
The servant bowed and left, going to knock on the door of another disciple’s room nearby.
Yuan Ming tidied up his clothes and walked out of his room, heading down the mountain.
The Qingluo Square that the servant mentioned was a large bluestone square at the foot of the mountain. Whenever there were major events in the Bi Luo Cave, this place would be chosen for gathering disciples.
When Yuan Ming arrived at the Qingluo Square, many people had already gathered. Disciples from various halls automatically gathered together. He went to the place where the disciples of the Fire Refining Hall were, and found that Fang Ge and Ah Mu He had already arrived.
“Brother Yuan Ming, it’s been a while. Eh, your cultivation level?” Fang Ge greeted with a smile, his face suddenly showing surprise.
“I’ve been in seclusion for a while, and I’ve made some progress,” Yuan Ming vaguely replied.
“When you were refining your sword before, you were only at the ninth level of Qi Refining. It hasn’t been long, and you’ve already reached the tenth level. It seems that Brother Yuan Ming has had some good fortune,” Fang Ge praised.
“There’s no good fortune. I just happened to get a bottle of Foundation Establishment pills a while ago, and I was lucky enough to advance,” Yuan Ming modestly said.
“Oh, so that’s how it is,” Fang Ge nodded, still a hint of confusion in his eyes. Yuan Ming’s cultivation speed was truly unfathomable.
Yuan Ming naturally saw Fang Ge’s confusion. However, his cultivation speed was too fast, and no matter how he explained it, it would only make it seem like he was trying to cover up. Besides, Brother Fang Ge was not the type to pry.
After all, although Bi Luo Cave was a sect, in reality, apart from the inner disciples, the higher-ups and even the elders didn’t care much about the general registered disciples.
Ah Mu He was holding a book of runes and was seriously flipping through it, not participating in their conversation.
More and more people arrived at the square. Soon, except for some who were carrying out sect tasks, all the disciples of Bi Luo Cave had gathered at the Qingluo Square, amounting to seven or eight hundred people.
The Foundation Establishment elders from various halls had also arrived, standing at the front of the crowd.
This was the first time Yuan Ming had seen so many Foundation Establishment cultivators of Bi Luo Cave gathered since he joined the sect. The number was as high as seventy or eighty.
In the distance of the Qingluo Square, a silver cat was squatting on a big tree, its head resting on its forelimbs, looking at the crowd on the square with interest, enjoying the bustling scene.
Suddenly, the crowd stirred, and everyone’s eyes were drawn to the front.
Two figures walked over. They were a middle-aged man with copper rings in his ears and a robust old man with yellow skin and a black beard. They stepped onto the temporary wooden platform built at the front of the crowd.
“Why are only the First and Second Cave Masters here? Where are the Third Cave Master and the Grand Elder?” The crowd was buzzing with discussion.
Yuan Ming was also curiously looking at these two Nascent Soul cultivators, but unfortunately, he was too far from the platform to sense the aura of the two Cave Masters.
“All elders and disciples of Bi Luo Cave, the reason we have gathered you here today is related to the Bai Lu Qiu Alliance. The significance of this once-in-a-decade meeting to the five major sects of the entire Southern and Northern Regions, I believe you all understand, so I won’t elaborate further,” the First Cave Master began, his voice echoing throughout the square, silencing everyone.
“The day of the meeting is in two days. Since Bai Lu Qiu is quite far from our sect, the Second Cave Master, Elder Mo Sa of the Law Enforcement Hall, and Elder Chu Xiong of the Execution Hall will lead the participating disciples to set off tomorrow,” the First Cave Master paused before continuing.
The crowd below the platform had expected that this gathering was related to the Bai Lu Qiu Alliance, so they were not surprised.
Yuan Ming had already made ample preparations. He carried all the essential items with him, so even if they set off now, it wouldn’t be a problem.
“Before we set off, there are two things I need to clarify with everyone. The first is to announce the rewards prepared by our sect for this meeting,” the First Cave Master said, glancing at the black-bearded old man beside him.
The crowd below the platform buzzed with discussion, and those disciples who had signed up for the meeting showed eager expressions. Naturally, Yuan Ming was no exception.